Here is a pic that shows one of my fugly Bosch Plus 4 plugs from last time and two of the NGK plugs that I pulled today. Unlike the Bosch plugs, the NGKs were still nice and tight (I did use a torque wrench and checked every couple thousand miles -- unlike my previous mechanic).

The NGKs are a bit discolored, nothing unusual as far as I can tell, while the Bosch was covered in ash deposits, had a burned center electrode and insulator. I pullled those NGKs prematurely, because curiosity got the best of me.

<b>I do see a very small amount of white coarse deposits on three of the NGKs. Slightly rough. Any idea what that could be?</b>

Out of curiosity I put the Beru Super* four-electrode plugs in that JWG recommended. I'll soon report on how the motor runs with them. Those plugs cover two heat ranges, 5 and 6!


* My bad: This should have said Beru Ultra-X

<img src="http://home.earthlink.net/~qoo/sparkies.jpg">

Its the additives in the gasoline, and oils. ;O)

When I was racing...white specs on a plug were ALWAYS BAD.

What gas are you using? Have you messed with your timing or fuel curves?

When we saw white dots, it was pieces of your pistons floating around the when they got too hot and melted away or get beat up and broke off from uncontrolled burn (aka detonation).

These conditions were usually cause by hot edges in the cylinder, too hot a plug, too little gas in the a/f mixture, poor grade gas, too much timing, nitrous, boost w/o additional fuel.

Perhaps I'm way off, but I'd look into it...

All fuel in California sucks! If you have not heard, the fuel "Nazi's" regulate the formulation, additives, and octane of our gasoline so that the few 1960's and 1970's muscle cars still on the road pollute less. However, concentrating on those old, low-compression, polluter engines, the fuel "Nazi's" have ignored the needs of newer, high compression engines and required the addition of noxious and toxic chemicals that can damage some high performance engines and pollute ground water (the idiots took us from the frying pan to the fire).

Funny thing, the additives generally have so little potency that they neither clean engines nor materially change the percentage of smog-creating compounds in the combusion numbers of any well-maintained engines. They go in toxic, come out toxic, and do not have any major beneficial effects. All the time, the oil companies that hold patents on these B.S. chemicals give a veritable smoke-and-mirrors show to the "Nazi's" to have them require their additive in all gasolines to force all other refiners to pay them royalties. Corruption city!

Anyway, no refiner or gasoline station may sell anything over 91 octane with the exception of 100 octane race gasoline which gets taxed up the ying-yang. Union76 refined and sold 92 octane for the longest time, but they had to pull it off the market or have its refining license revoked/fines/etc.

91 is the highest, 84 (which I didn't know such a low rating existed) the lowest, &amp; 85-87 (w/ 10% ethanol) being mid-grade. Back in Oklahoma, I was used to 87 being the lowest, &amp; 94 the highest. Every station had 93 octane, &amp; ethanol is non-existant. It's also a lot cheaper there. But then again, Tulsa is the oil capitol of the U.S. I know all of the Texas people think that's not true, but it is. What's weird is seeing trucks w/ different brand name gasolines pull out of the same refineries, &amp; claiming that their gas is better. They may input more additives, but I agree w/ you that they have little effect.

That white crap isn't metal particles from my pistons. My very normally aspirated 12v is not running lean at all.

Yes, our CA fuel sucks majorly.

... it does result in some sulfated ash. Still, it's under the VW/Audi-imposed max. limit of 1.2% and it shouldn't cause trouble.

I've never had pepper on my daily drivers and any race car mechanic will tell you pepper means detonation...

I hope! ;-)